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Region of Melarna

Hey,

So I was taking a look at some old projects/archives and I found some maps I draw but I didn't actually finished - one of them is just the sketch - so I took those I think look good and now I'm finishing them (while I'm stuck on my current WIP thread), mainly to start creating a portfolio in case I want to start taking comissions.

As for the first map: The Region of Melarna. A small area with few people living. The map, if my mind is not tricking me, was done for training purposes only, so no story built actually.

Done on a A4 paper, inked with pen and then scanned. Painting and writing were done on PS CS4.

Yeah, I have to say I did screw up the labels on this one. But this has two reasons, first one is that I couldn't find any good font to match the map well and be readable. As for the second, the map had to be on a lower resolution so that I could uplaod it here - The original is still hard to read, but this one is almost impossible .

I like the color scheme, and the layout of the map. Nice job. One suggestion though: if you're not using a crisp background image--better if you can, but if you don't have one--you might try reducing the opacity on the pen drawing layer, duplicate it, then go to Filters > Blur > Lens Blur and add a tiny bit of blur to that duplicated layer so that it better matches and melds with the background. Just a tiny detail thing. It is better if you can use a crisp background.

One thing I noticed is that the font doesn't have the same level of diffuse edges that the hand-drawn portions do and I find that a little jarring. Perhaps a little blur and possibly fine-grained shower-door displacement on the text would help to make it to match the rest of the image. The same thing applies where the text cuts the background (e.g. Red grounded Plains label across the river); the sharp edges on an otherwise diffuse line just looks unfinished.

I like the color scheme, and the layout of the map. Nice job. One suggestion though: if you're not using a crisp background image--better if you can, but if you don't have one--you might try reducing the opacity on the pen drawing layer, duplicate it, then go to Filters > Blur > Lens Blur and add a tiny bit of blur to that duplicated layer so that it better matches and melds with the background. Just a tiny detail thing. It is better if you can use a crisp background.

Hmm, I've never tried this, thanks for the tip. But, what exactly do you consider a crisp background?

Originally Posted by waldronate

One thing I noticed is that the font doesn't have the same level of diffuse edges that the hand-drawn portions do and I find that a little jarring. Perhaps a little blur and possibly fine-grained shower-door displacement on the text would help to make it to match the rest of the image. The same thing applies where the text cuts the background (e.g. Red grounded Plains label across the river); the sharp edges on an otherwise diffuse line just looks unfinished.

Sorry to bother you, but how can I do this (the bold area)? Actually I never heard this expression

By 'crisp' I mean high resolution, sharp focus, not blurred. With the way your background is blurred and your pen and font layers are crisp, there's a mismatch. They don't mesh well. A quick fix would be doing a sharpen filter on the background and a small blur on the rest to make them look like one image. That's all I meant.

By 'crisp' I mean high resolution, sharp focus, not blurred. With the way your background is blurred and your pen and font layers are crisp, there's a mismatch. They don't mesh well. A quick fix would be doing a sharpen filter on the background and a small blur on the rest to make them look like one image. That's all I meant.

Oh, I get it, I probably shouldn't do it since I posted on the finished map area, but I'll give those hints a try and if it gets better I'll edit the first post.